a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a switching system using laser induced discharge.
b) Description of the Related Art
It is difficult to switch high voltage and large current by mechanical switching using such as an ordinary relay. A practically usable device capable of switching even high voltage and large current is a thyratron. Switching by a thyratron utilizes discharge.
However, a thyratron has a complicated structure and is expensive. Another switching system capable of switching high voltage and large current is a laser trigger gap (LTG) system. With this LTG, as shown in FIG. 3, a spherical electrode 10 is disposed facing another electrode 11 having a laser aperture 12. A laser is radiated from the electrode 10 toward the electrode 11 to generate a plasma plume 14 by which switching is conducted. The feature of LTG resides in that timing and synchronization can be obtained correctly and reliably. With LTG, the number of circuits to be switched is not theoretically limited and multiple switching is possible. However, electrodes and equipments are required to be positioned optically precisely, so that the number of switches is theoretically limited. Under such circumstances, developments on switching through laser induced discharge have been long desired, this switching being capable of realizing multiple switching for a number of circuits, being good in synchronization, and having no switching time delay among circuits.
The invention has been made under such circumstances. It is an object of the present invention to provide a switching system using laser induced discharge, capable of reliable switching with a simple structure, multiple switching for a number of circuits, good synchronization and no switching time delay among circuits.
In order to achieve the above object of the invention, there is provided a switching system using laser induced discharge for controlling conduction between electrodes of a switch by discharge between the electrodes, wherein a laser beam is applied to one of the electrodes to make discharge from the other of the electrodes be induced by the laser beam and application of the laser beam is controlled to switch the conduction.